Meditations on First Philosophy

René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. In this article, Descartes tackles the meditations on the first philosophy in which the existence of god and the distinction between mind and body are demonstrated. He first begins with his process in his search for knowledge. His first starts by waiting until he is good and ready to analyze. He waits until he is at an age where he can “seriously and freely address [himself] to the general upheaval of all my former opinions” (Descartes Page 6). Next he analyzes his beliefs. He holds them up and if he can find any reason for doubt then he rejects the entire belief and leaves it behind. When choosing which beliefs he wants to analyze, he doesn’t analyze all of them, but the core beliefs in which his other beliefs stem from. He is analyzing the “foundation” of his beliefs. He doesn’t stop after the argument that the senses cannot be trusted because in his view there a truths even simpler than our senses can comprehend. We must search for these truest of truths because stopping at our senses is not enough if we are to really analyze the foundation of our beliefs. As each stage progresses, it seems to push his skepticism further. He first questions his own beliefs and what values they truly hold and in pursuit of this he manages to question his own dreams. Everything in a dream is fabricated to look like real life and can only be created as a counterpart to reality. Our arms looks like our arms so how can we trust that we are actually awake. This then leads him to question the idea of a “creator”. If it is possible for there to be a good god then it is also possible for the god to be evil and have no other purpose than to deceive us. Descartes from this point begins to question his own senses because this god could be deceiving him. This is skepticism to the extreme. He has rocked his entire core and questioned everything until there is nothing further. One question just leads to another in this form of analysis.

What does he know by the end of meditation 1?

This a difficult question to answer, as it appears as if he has learned nothing. In the beginning he has ill-formed beliefs and at the end he once again beliefs his wrong beliefs. I believe that he has learned something though. He makes note that he has “fall[en] back into my former opinions, and I dread awakening from this
slumber” (Descartes Page 8). He has learned that when we accept our false beliefs and rely on our deceitful senses that we are merely asleep living an imaginary freedom. We fear having to disavow these illusions because they are what bring us peace and to remove our beliefs, we will also remove our tranquility.

(400 Words)